I like to think I'm a realist. But truth be told, sometimes I observe the so called "Conventional Wisdom" of the world, and think to myself I must either be suffering from a mental illness, or I have a tendency to be on the tipping end of a spectrum in a world that finds comfort in normalcy. Perhaps "suffering" was the wrong word. I think I actually enjoy it.
The word "normal" could easily be used to describe the traditional model and sequence that society dictates us to follow. Go to school, get a good job and retire by about 65, seems to be the commonly accepted set of rules by which many govern their lives. Seems perfectly acceptable right? Let's take a closer look.
Allow me to skip straight to the tertiary level of education, since I don't really have a problem with anything before that level. After all, it is important that we attend school at an early age, in order that it might arm us with the basic knowledge needed to be able to communicate and carry out normal transactions in our environment. Also, it helps us to practice setting up routines, learn responsibility, and understand respect, among many other valuable basic lessons. It's what happens after where I have the trouble. The University of Oregon states that 80% of all Undergraduates change their majors at least 3 times! That's 3 times in a 4 year program. What's clear to me from these numbers is, that the majority begin and commit to a program, even before they have a dead set goal on their career path. No doubt no fault of their own. As the system dictates, they are forced to make life decisions at an early age, and prior to the experience within the respective industries. Nontheless, it tells me that a path is chosen before the destination. I submit to you, to "begin at the end." If you don't know where you're going, you won't know how to get there.
Now after these 4 years of "learning how to work for major companies," (and let's just assume your changing majors 3 times didn't extend your University life past 4 years), you are then thrust into the world of the 9-5. Ahhh yes......the good old 9-5. And yes, I'm going to attack that too in the next paragraph. Certainly it would be no fun not to speak about the work week which consumes most of our lives.
Ok. So let's begin with the minimum 40 hour week. Let's add to that overtime, which for some is extreme, reaching in excess of 60 hours at times, and for others, non-existent. Let's average it at say 45 hours in a workweek (1 hour a day on average) for the purpose of demonstrating my point. I will also add another 5 hours for transit time (30 minutes each way each day, getting to and from work), and not to mention "transition" time, for the mind to acclimatize to not being in work mode. So it is fair to say that in excess of 50 hours a week approximately, is spent on work and work-related matters. Taking sleep time of approximately 56 hours average per week, we end up with almost half of our awake lives being spent at work. And almost 70% of our awake lives during the work week period.
No doubt I will get some bashing on many points I have mentioned. The motive isn't for me to present to you exact staistics or ideologies set in stone. It is simply to provoke you into thinking about some of these items, and primarily because I feel compelled to share my views for reasons unknown to me. So if you love what you do, and it takes you around the world travelling, or you only chose one major in school, or can swtich between work mode and play mode in a split second, or inherited a fortune and never had to work, kudos to you. It doesn't change my views on the conventional model of society.
So for those of you who would prefer to not work their whole lives, if given the choice, consider this. After toiling for half of your awake lives for the majority of your adulthood, you are promised that eventually by around 65 you can retire (perhaps in a wheelchair) and hopefully live a mediocre retirement. Sounds awesome.
Especially since the average death age for Jamaica is 72.
"Insanity" was defined by Einstein as "doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results." So this gives me some hope that perhaps I haven't gone off the edge with what seems to be radical standpoints. Yet. For the objectors, I ask that you strongly digest that definition.
Since I don't want to run the risk of reaching a twitter-type character limit on my facebook Wall page, I will end Part 1 here, and in a later document, begin discussing alternative lifestyle ideas, for one to get the heck out of the rat race.
In the words of the bathroom scale with the 600-pound man on it...."to be continued..."
One Love,
Manoj Ramchandani
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